


The Meeting of Horatio

by ChibiDashie



Series: The Magic Almanac [7]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreamscapes, Gen, Minor Violence, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22234891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChibiDashie/pseuds/ChibiDashie
Summary: In Mary's dreams, she meets Horatio, the first Bearer of the Almanac (From Origin: Part 1). Things look good, until it gets a little bit sour...
Series: The Magic Almanac [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1424335
Kudos: 1





	The Meeting of Horatio

When the Almanac glistened up, Prussia emerged into Mary's room, carrying the Bearer of the Almanac herself in his arms. Mary rubbed her eyes and desperately wanted to sleep. "There you go, Mary!" Prussia said as he placed Mary on the ground, "Go get changed into your sleepytime clothes, okay?"

Mary nodded and yawned, going into her closet to grab a nightgown, changing herself behind the door. She wiggled in the nightgown with a little help from Prussia as well. Mary was very exhausted and raised her arms up for Prussia. As he picked her up, Mary was trying her best to not fall asleep on him.

"You're so cute, I could eat you up!" Prussia exclaimed, "You're such a little darling, you!" He pinched one of Mary's cheeks as she giggled and poked his cheek back. Prussia then began to prepare Mary into her journey into Dreamland for the night while holding her in one arm and pulling the blankets back with the other. Then as he gently placed Mary in bed, he tucked her in and moved her plushies close by to her until he saw Cottonball, the beloved stuffed unicorn that belongs to Mary. At this point, Prussia was essentially having a conversation with a stuffed toy.

"Oh, what's that Cotton Candy? You want to give Mary a little kiss on the nose?" Prussia knew that the toy was named Cottonball; he simply made this supposed mistake on purpose, a classic dad move. He was holding the stuffed unicorn and began waving it around while doing his best to make up another voice for Cottonball.

"Cottonball, silly!" Mary laughed and corrected him, which would probably make Prussia call Cottonball something else more and more. He brought Cottonball close to Mary and bumped her nose while making a kiss noise, as if the unicorn was actually kissing Mary.

"I want a kiss from you too, Mr. Prussia."

Prussia knelt down to Mary and kissed her on the forehead, but this proved to be a trap! Mary hugged Prussia out of surprise, but he obliged and hugged her back.

"Gute nacht, Mary. May all of your dreams be wunderbar!"

Mary sunk her head into the soft pillow as Prussia readjusted her blanket, soon about to descend into sleep. Tonight was going to be a nice dream...or was it?

* * *

In the Land of Dreams, Mary saw nothing all around her; everything and everywhere was merely a white void. Her curiosity piqued and all she did was attempt to do a somersault. It wasn't the best, but she soon overheard someone.

"Hey! You know I can see your underwear doing that, right?"

The voice was nowhere near familiar. Mary needed to know where the voice was coming from and soon! She began to wander around until she saw a spirit of a young man floating slightly off the ground. To Mary, this looked like someone from America right before the revolution.

"Ah, so I see." The spirit said, "You must be the new Bearer of the Almanac?"

Mary nodded out of surprise. She looked up and tried to make out his appearance in case she can remember in the waking world.

"Do you know who I am, Bearer of the Almanac?"

"I don't."

He looked rather disappointed. "Of course you don't. Those countries want you to forget my whole existence. I am Horatio, the first Bearer of the Almanac."

Mary gasped and nearly teared up. "You're Horatio?!" Mary exclaimed, "Mr. England told me about you and, well, you sound really mean to the nations!"

"Kid, you don't understand what I had to go through. My stupid dad wouldn't let me follow my dreams all because he is the wizard who got that stupid almanac magical in the first place just so he expected me to do better in school and brainwashed them into making me a stupid wizard."

Mary's jaw dropped at what Horatio just said about her friends, but had more questions. "What did you want to be when you grow up, Mr. Horatio?"

"I wanted to be someone called a bard. They travel around and play music for people. But my dad wouldn't allow it until he gave in on that one day."

"What happened on that one day?"

Horatio sighed and lowered himself. "Child, it is very sad and brutal. I wanted to come face-to-face with a notoriously dangerous bull who lived in my town at the time. His name was Diablo, and many people have died when they came close to him. I wanted to outrun Diablo's rage which is how most of these people have died, anyways. It turns out that when I tripped on a rock, I was one of them. All I remember before going here was my friend, Cornelius, holding me in his arms with my other comrade, Alfwin, by my side."

Mary was visibly upset, but wanted to know so much more about Horatio. "Do you know how the nations knew about you not existing?" Mary was stuttering.

"Why would they?! They probably didn't care at all! Snot-head Austria probably didn't care and was just playing on the piano, England was probably sad but still didn't care, and Prussia was probably celebrating my death as a victorious thing!"

Mary was highly offended that Horatio would say such things about three of her friends. "They would never, you wafflehanger!" Mary shouted as her tears began to choke her. "Mr. Austria lets me watch him play the piano all the time and Mr. England performs magic tricks for me!"

"So what?"

"And Mr. Prussia is the nicest to me! He tucked me in bed to bring me here and we were playing together earlier!"

Horatio sighed. "Well, they never liked how I am anyways."

"That's because you're really mean to them, Mr. Horatio. Mr. England told me all about you. You did so much bad that...they just don't like you."

"Well thank you, Captain Obvious. I had to be mean so they would leave me alone, not constantly nag me for every little thing like my father would."

Mary approached Horatio and hugged his leg. He looked down and was shocked that someone would do this. Mary thought by this logic, Horatio would warm up to her, just like what happened with the nations that Mary have met before. "I just think you need a friend, Mr. Horatio."

All of a sudden, Mary was kicked off from Horatio, flying back and landing hard on the floor. "I don't need you, Bearer of the Almanac!" Horatio shouted as he clenched his fists, "Just go away! I do not want to be reminded of my father!"

Mary was hurt, both physically and emotionally. Horatio was approaching Mary and just about to grab the collar of her nightgown until—

* * *

Mary jumped awake, shook from the nightmare she just went through. Ah, it was only a dream. Even for a dream, it still took an emotional toll on Mary and she couldn't cry in the middle of the night; her parents were sleeping and she wanted to give them a restful sleep after a hard day at work. There was only one thing left to do but go inside of the Almanac. Mary hopped in the Almanac and ran as fast as she can to find Prussia, the last person she saw before she fell asleep. The Manor was dead quiet today as most of the nations were sleeping at this point as well. At last, she found the door that lead to Germany's house and knocked. Prussia opened up the door, surprised to see Mary up so late. Right when Prussia was about to say a word, Mary burst into tears and hugged his leg tightly.

"There, there!" He knelt down to hug the child, "Your awesome Uncle Prussia is here." He was cooing at her to make her feel better, despite her crying. With one heave, Prussia lifted up Mary into his arms and rocked her. This made her stop crying and looked up at Prussia as he was carrying her over to a sofa and placed her on his lap.

"Well, now tell me," Prussia said, rather concerned for Mary. "Now what got you upset, little miss Mary?"

"I had a nightmare, Mr. Prussia," Mary said, sniffling, "It was really scary..."

"Oh? Do you want to tell your favorite Uncle Prussia all about it?"

Mary nodded. "I met Horatio and he hurt me." She then proceeded to smush her face into Prussia's chest. "I'm scared..."

"Aw, don't be! He's been gone for a long time. If he were to ever come back, your awesome Uncle Prussia would fight him!"

"Like how?"

"Well, let's see. Just a little bit of all of the awesome sword fighting I did, punch and a kick, and a little something else!" All of a sudden, he began to tickle the child on his lap all over the place! Mary was squeaking and laughing everywhere to the point the three dogs that were sleeping nearby woke up, with Berlitz coming over to investigate what was going on. His tail was wagging upon seeing Mary, which eventually made Prussia stop tickling her.

"Well, look who's here, Mary! It's your old pal Berlitz!"

At this point, Mary was feeling a lot better. "You would tickle Horatio until he dies!" Mary giggled, "And then he blows up into a bajillion pieces!"

"That's the spirit, Mary!"

Mary only noticed Berlitz right behind her and began to pet him. "Hi, Berlitz."

"See? Berlitz cares too!"

"Mr. Prussia? I wanna sleep with the doggies."

"Alright. I'll have Herr Deutschland to get you back in your room. I remember when he would sleep with the doggies when he was a little boy and I would have to carry him to his room! Ah, good times."

Mary then went over to the giant dog bed the other dogs, Aster and Blackie, would sleep on as Berlitz followed Mary. The huge German shepherd lie down as Mary used him as a pillow. Aster and Blackie noticed and readjusted closer to Mary to keep her warm.

"Here Mary!" Prussia said as he wrapped Mary in a blanket. "I can't see you getting cold. Now just another kiss from Uncle Prussia and off you go night night~"

He kissed Mary on the head and proceeded to turn the lights off for her; the only light still on was the fireplace slowly dying. It was peaceful now, and Mary was much calmer than before.

* * *

Mary saw herself in that same void again where she met Horatio. She thought Horatio would appear again to continue tormenting her, only for a much different figure to appear from light. An aged man wearing a long cloak that trailed a little bit approached Mary with his arms out. "Do not be afraid, child." his voice echoed, "I am the light to the nightmare you had."

Mary looked up at the wizard in wonder. His long, grey beard draped down as his grey hair touched his shoulders, with his icy blue eyes looking down at the child.

"Child, who may you be?" Asked the wizard,

"I'm Mary."

"Mary. What a beautiful name. I am the one who had cast a spell on that book you found one fateful day, and I have seen that you were the only one who had appreciation for such a book."

"The Almanac?!" Mary exclaimed suddenly,

"Of course, yes, the Almanac!" The wizard knelt down to Mary's height as he held the child's hands gently with his old, bony, wrinkly hands. "I have seen so much from you, Mary. You're learning and growing with the nations who live inside of the Almanac, something I have always wished my son would do."

Mary was shocked. "You're Horatio's papa?!"

"Yes, yes. I love him as much as almost every parental guardian has to their children, but Horatio was rather stubborn and led him to do so many bad things that did lead him to his demise. I tried so hard to help him, only for...that to happen." He stood back up and looked up at the endless sky with his arms behind his back. "If Horatio were to become a wizard, there would have still been wizards in this world that would have performed magic and helped out those who need it. Alas, I was the last of my kind." Mary was getting sad because of the sadness radiating from the wizard, soon hugging him as his beard tapered over Mary. He looked down to see her there; just a little startled, that's all. 

"I don't know where I would be if you didn't make the almanac magical, Mr. Wizard sir," Mary said, soon sniffling. "Mama and Papa aren't always here for me because they work so much and they really wish they could be there for me as much as possible. Thank you so much for giving me a second family."

The wizard began to stroke Mary's hair as the loose sleeves on his cloak kept brushing up against Mary's right side. "It's a wonderful feeling, child; a feeling that something you've done was worthwhile in the end. Even when I came here, I felt that nobody would find that Almanac until you came and took it. I'm forever grateful that you have taken such good care of my magical creation." 

"And I'm grateful I have made many new friends there." 

"Now, I must go, Mary. For it is the day you awaken into a new journey in your world. Farewell." 

* * *

Mary slowly opened up her eyes as the sun shone in her room. She felt so rejuvenated after what was a terrible nightmare she forgot ever happened. Heck, she even forgot she was at Germany's house to see Prussia to tell him about the nightmare she had with Horatio. It was like she was in her room in the first place! As Mary rolled out of bed, she saw some cookies wrapped in plastic with a ribbon and a tag on it. She saw a note on the tag which read:

_To Mary. Have fun at school. -Germany_

And thus began a new day for Mary.


End file.
